Re: Planar or Electrostatic, what are the +- of each?

Posted by morricab (S) on September 10, 2006 at 09:02:37

In Reply to: Planar or Electrostatic, what are the +- of each? posted by timb5881 on September 9, 2006 at 16:26:11:

Having owned three different types of electrostats (Audiostatic, Stax, Acoustat) and two different types of Planar magnetic/ribbon designs (Infinity IRS Beta, Apogee) I would have to say that the bigger versions of all of these speakers will rock very hard with the kind of "slam" you can get from big box speakers. The smaller ones will rock but won't have quite the same slam. The Infinity Betas could rock the hardest (because of the huge woofer towers primarily) but were utterly ruthless to bad recordings (they were also somewhat colored sounding).

Recommended planar (or hybrid) speakers that can rock down the house and play beautiful chamber music equally well (the power AND the glory):

Apogee Full-Range, Scintilla, Diva, Studio Grand, or Duetta Signature
Soundlab A1, U1
Acoustat 2+2, Spectra 4400 or Spectra 6600
Analysis Audio Omega and Amphytron
Infinity IRS Beta, Gamma and Epsilon, RS 1B, and RS 2B (not as great for classical music)
ML Prodigy (still somewhat limited but quite good anyway), Summitt
Relco DaVinci (line source with dipole woofer array)
Dali Megaline (expensive even used)
Maggie MG 20.1r

I didn't include smaller estats or ribbon models because to play big they really need extra help from subwoofers and these will limit integration and therefore compromise sound quality, IMO. Of those on this list the cheapest used are the Acoustats and perhaps the Apogees. The Apogee Diva is probably the best bang for the buck on the whole list followed closely by the Acoustat Spectra 4400 and 6600 , which are very difficult to find. The reason is the Diva will hang with just about everything on this list in almost all parameters...its that good. That said I acutally prefer the sound overall of my Acoustat Spectra 2200, which in smaller rooms will also rock very hard and are superbly tranparent. The Infinities will rock the hardest but are also, IMO the most colored but still not too badly compared to most box speakers.

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - Planar or Electrostatic, what are the +- of each? - timb5881 16:26:11 09/09/06 (30)

Re: Planar or Electrostatic, what are the +- of each? - Frank Waller 15:10:06 09/13/06 (0)

Innersound Eros III rocks out - mark maloof 13:57:23 09/11/06 (0)

Re: Planar or Electrostatic, what are the +- of each? - Ethan Thomas 12:10:30 09/10/06 (1)

Agree - 3.6s can rock very well !! - Dr.Jazz 08:37:53 09/12/06 (0)

Re: Planar or Electrostatic, what are the +- of each? - morricab 09:02:37 09/10/06 (0)

You said you "like rock or pop", so ... - andyr 02:46:04 09/10/06 (0)

easy answer: I dunno - Green Lantern 01:24:22 09/10/06 (0)

Re: Planar or Electrostatic, what are the +- of each? - superguru 22:31:19 09/09/06 (1)

Re: Planar or Electrostatic, what are the +- of each? - superguru 10:15:47 09/12/06 (0)

Re: Planar or Electrostatic, what are the +- of each? - John C. - Aussie 20:32:08 09/09/06 (20)

Somewhat O/T - E-Stat 15:28:43 09/11/06 (19)

That would sound awesome - John C. - Aussie 17:15:00 09/11/06 (18)

Re: That would sound awesome - morricab 01:12:00 09/13/06 (9)

Maybe,. but what puzzles me is ..... - John C. - Aussie 14:49:32 09/13/06 (8)

Re: Maybe,. but what puzzles me is ..... - morricab 01:40:39 09/14/06 (7)

Re: Maybe,. but what puzzles me is ..... - andyr 21:18:39 09/18/06 (6)

Back-emf comes from stored energy. - Al Sekela 20:41:11 09/21/06 (1)

Thanks, Al ... makes sense!! - andyr 01:27:56 09/22/06 (0)

Re: Maybe,. but what puzzles me is ..... - morricab 02:13:25 09/19/06 (3)

Sure, I understand that the inductors in a passive crossover ... - andyr 02:27:00 09/19/06 (2)

Re: Sure, I understand that the inductors in a passive crossover ... - morricab 08:14:50 09/19/06 (1)

Thanks. nt - andyr 13:36:36 09/19/06 (0)

Re: That would sound awesome - Brian Walsh 19:41:45 09/11/06 (7)

Re: That would sound awesome - John C. - Aussie 20:49:56 09/11/06 (6)

Not trying to flame. - jimbill 21:20:26 09/12/06 (5)

My opinion on all this is ....... - John C. - Aussie 22:11:45 09/12/06 (4)

Re: My opinion on all this is ....... - theaudiohobby 02:01:02 09/26/06 (0)

Re: My opinion on all this is ....... - Brian Walsh 14:01:08 09/13/06 (1)

Re: My opinion on all this is ....... - morricab 01:46:14 09/14/06 (0)

Re: My opinion on all this is ....... - jimbill 08:26:19 09/13/06 (0)

Follow Ups

Re: Planar or Electrostatic, what are the +- of each? - morricab 09:02:37 09/10/06 (0)

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